In The Event This Doesn't Fall Apart

by Shannon Lee Barry

Are you my future or her past?

Your things in my room feel normal. No twist ending.

yes to this and anything he asks me

You open your arms to me and I think, I have been here before.

You are my deja-vu. An echo of the person I had imagined for myself.

Minutes and hours were swallowed up by your voice, your hair, your hand on my hand in the movies and the conversation on the walk home.

And I am trying to catch the minutes, trying to freeze them in my grasp so I can really feel them before I get too greedy.

It’s raining hard in your brain and I can’t keep you warm and I can’t keep you safe but I’m trying to protect you.

the impossible gap between the time I leave you to go to work and the time that I get back.

It never gets easier to go in the opposite direction of you.

And you and my idea of you— well they might just be the same guy. I’ve never seen them in the same room at the same time, at least. You’ve never proved me otherwise.

“That’s a strong use of the word almost.”